https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/max- ... /10747016/
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"I've never really said anything about it because I was just focused on talking to the team about how we can improve our performance, future ideas for next year as well, and that's why I had nothing really to add," he said.
"But I think it's time to basically stop all the rumours, and for me it's always been quite clear that I was staying anyway."
"I think that was also the general feeling in the team anyway, because we were always in discussions about what we could do with the car. And when you're not interested in staying, then you also stop talking about these kind of things – and I never did."
It is understood Verstappen's exit clauses can also come into play again next summer. When asked if he was expecting a similar level of media scrutiny in 12 months' time, he replied: "I don't know. I mean if you ask me that question next year, then yes, and we'll have that speculation.
"But I never speak about it, because I'm more interested in just working on the performance of things, so that's why I also never really talk about what is in my contract."
'No point in completely writing off 2025'
"No one really knows for next year where they will be at," he explained. "And for us this year, realistically it's going to be very difficult to fight McLaren. I think it's already difficult enough to fight with Ferrari and Mercedes.
"But I think there's still a lot of opportunity to learn more about the car and the behaviour of the car. Of course, I know that the cars will be different next year, but there are still things that you can take out of this year on the engineering side of things and also implement for next year.
"So, you cannot just say: 'Okay, we're not winning the championship this year, so we just write it off completely'."
